Article

2006-02-17 Iraq

United Iraqi Alliance coalition starts to fray

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Posted by Seafarious 2006-02-17 00:16|| || Front Page|| [3 views since 2007-05-07] Top

#1 I take this as positive - keeping all shiites together in one block is one of the most negative things about Iraq politics the last 15 months - a democracy needs shifting coalitions,not parties that are PURELY religio-ethnic blocks. And the UIA has done some pretty dumb things, including allowing the militias in the south, esp Basra, misrunning the Interior Ministry, etc. And staking out an extreme position on federalism that is making reconciliation Sunni Arabs difficult - look, even the Kurds seem to be more or less fed up with the UIA antics. And implicated in almost all those things is SCIRI, most of all.

Now as to Muqty,
1. Did the LAT even get the identification right? There are two "sadrist parties" in UIA. One is Muqty Sadrs own, whose name I forget. The other, which Im sure was called Fadila, is based on Muqtys dads radicial ideology, but isnt loyal to Muqty personally (hes too much of a young whipper snapper, and evidently some of his dads associates want power themselves) Its not clear to me which party this actually is.
2. In either case, these guys are not you know, like Jeffersonian democrats. But they are commited to Iraqi unity (in large part cause their constituency is in Sadr City, and Baghdadis loses from extreme federalism, whether theyre shiite or sunni) and theyre commited to working with the Sunnis. And while theyve had their own militias, they just might have figured out that the coalition isnt going to let them gain anything with their militia, and theyre better off getting rid of the SCIRI militia, even if they lose their own.

Posted by liberalhawk 2006-02-17 09:56|| 2006-02-17 09:56|| Front Page Top

#2 That's it, liberalhawk. You are now the official Rantburg political commentator, in charge of clarifying all the party stuff, like Paul Maloney for Pakistan. :-D

Posted by trailing wife 2006-02-17 11:17|| 2006-02-17 11:17|| Front Page Top

#3 The ITM guys offered a similar take a couple of days ago, so the gist of the article seems plausible.

Posted by JSU 2006-02-17 16:24|| 2006-02-17 16:24|| Front Page Top

#4 like our model indicates sobriety, comity and civil exchange....the extremists can take heart from Kerry, Pelosi, Reid et al, who delayed the Patriot Act renewal until they saw polls rolling them into the ditch. They'll bargain/split/new coalition for years

Posted by Frank G">Frank G 2006-02-17 17:38|| 2006-02-17 17:38|| Front Page Top

#5 Ah, Democracy!

Posted by Bobby 2006-02-17 23:19|| 2006-02-17 23:19|| Front Page Top

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